Judge LaDoris Hazzard Cordell

The Back Room with Andy Ostroy

LaDoris Hazzard Cordell was the first lawyer to open a law practice in East Palo Alto, CA, a low-income community of color. In 1978, she was appointed Assistant Dean for Student Affairs at Stanford Law School, where she implemented a successful minority admissions program. In 1982, Governor Jerry Brown appointed her to the Municipal Court of Santa Clara County making her the first African American woman judge in northern California. In1988, Judge Cordell won election to the Superior Court of Santa Clara County. In all, she' spent nearly 20 years on the bench.

From 2010 to 2015, she served as Independent Police Auditor for the City of San Jose. In 2015 she was a member of the Blue Ribbon Panel on Transparency, Accountability, and Fairness in Law Enforcement. She’s also served as Vice Provost & Special Counselor to the President for Campus Relations at Stanford University; served on the Palo Alto City Council; was the Independent Police Auditor for the City of San Jose; and is the co-founder of the African American Composer Initiative. She is the author of the 2021 book: Her Honor: My Life on the Bench...What Works, What's Broken, and How to Change It. And, she’s appeared on CNN, MSNBC, NPR, CBS-5 television and Court TV.

Judge Cordell take us back to childhood and her early inspirations; walks us through her illustrious academic and judicial career; helps unpack the latest with convicted-felon Donald Trump's sentencing options in the New York election-interference/hush-money trial; discusses the need for an enforceable code of conduct for the Supreme Court in the wake of new disclosure violations and conflicts of interest with Justices Thomas and Alito; discusses her book; and shares how music has impacted her life.

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